Tea For Ruby

Tea For Ruby (Te para Ruby) is a short children's book written by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. The book tells the story of Ruby, a young girl prone to accidents and bad manners, who is invited to have tea with the queen. The idea of the ill-behaved Ruby going to have tea with the queen causes some consternation and fear amongst Ruby's friends and family, until it is finally revealed that the queen in question is actually Ruby's grandmother. But even if this were not the case, Ruby finally does learn to have a proper tea time, despite the well-illustrated examples of her ill behavior. Thus, in true Monster at the End of This Book fashion, the tension is diffused, averted and subverted.

I read fairly widely, and one of the hazards of reading widely is the difficulty with which books from different genres can be judged against each other. This book came in my Cheerios box. It was written by a member of the British Royal Family. It is bilingual. While I found the book mildly charming and diverting, to truly describe its impact, I would have to compare it with other multilingual books distributed in breakfast cereal, and penned by royalty. A fairly narrow criteria, to say the least.